Back to School with Betsy Read online

  The boys and girls in the third grade felt very grown up now. Their room was on the second floor.

  Betsy liked her new teacher right away. Her name was Miss Ross. She didn't look at all like Miss Grey. Miss Ross's hair was almost black and she had very dark brown eyes. When she smiled it made Betsy think of toothpaste. By the end of the first day Miss Ross had smiled so many times that all of the children liked the new third grade teacher.

  Billy was pleased because Miss Ross was delighted with his cocoon. She put the box on a shelf of the bookcase. "We'll keep it there," she said, "until the butterfly comes out."

  Miss Ross told Christopher that she was glad he had worn his sombrero. She said that the third grade was going to study all about Mexico. Christopher felt very important because he had been there.

  "I have a lot of Mexican things," said Christopher. "I can bring them all to school."

  "That will be lovely," said Miss Ross.

  By the end of the week all of the children were excited about Mexico.

  They learned that hundreds of years ago, people came from far across the ocean and made their homes in Mexico. They learned that these people came from the country of Spain and that the people in Mexico still speak Spanish.

  The children learned some Spanish words and Betsy was very proud when she said the Spanish words for mother and father.

  Mother gave Betsy an old lace curtain which

  Betsy wore over her head. She called it her "mantilla" and felt very Spanish indeed.

  Father said that he felt Spanish too. "Fact is," said Father, "I feel so Spanish I think I will get some tamale plants and raise some tamales in our vegetable garden."

  Betsy laughed and laughed. "Oh, Father!" she cried. "Tamales don't grow on plants. They're not vegetables. Tamales are made of cornmeal. I don't believe you know any Spanish. You're just making it up."

  "Is that so?" said Father. "Well, I know that a burro is a donkey and a hacienda is a farm and an iguana is a lizard and a fiesta is a nice long nap."

  "No, it isn't," laughed Betsy. "A fiesta is a holiday and it is like a big fair. A siesta is a nap, Father."

  Father laughed and said that he guessed he didn't know much Spanish after all.

  The children also learned about the Mexican Indians. They learned that the ancestors of the Mexican Indians lived in Mexico before the Spaniards came.

  Christopher said that he had seen lots of Indians. He said they worked on the haciendas.

  And that they made pottery and wove rugs, just the way their ancestors did. Christopher brought a great many postcards to school. They were nearly all pictures of Indians.

  Billy said, "Why are there always mountains in the pictures?"

  "Because there are so many mountains in Mexico," replied Christopher. "Nearly everywhere you look there are mountains. Some of the mountains are volcanoes."

  Betsy didn't know what a volcano was.

  "I know," said Billy. "It's a mountain that explodes every once in a while."

  After several weeks Billy said he thought it would be nice to make a great big Mexican picture. Miss Ross said that she thought it would be nice too.

  "How big?" asked Betsy.

  "As big as you wish," replied Miss Ross.

  "Can we cover the whole blackboard?" asked Christopher.

  "Yes," said Miss Ross, "it can go right across the front of the room."

  "Oh, boy!" said Billy. "That will be some picture!"

  "Can we all draw it?" asked Ellen.

  "Well," replied Miss Ross, "you can all draw Mexican pictures on paper first. Then we will decide which pictures are the best. The ones that are chosen as the best can draw theirs on the blackboard. The big blackboard picture will be made up of the best little pictures."

  Betsy could hardly wait to make her picture. She loved to draw and she hoped that she could draw on the blackboard. Miss Ross had beautiful colored chalks.

  Betsy decided that she would draw an Indian riding on a burro.

  Christopher drew a little boy like himself, in a big sombrero with a blanket over his shoulder.

  Many of the children drew Mexican Indians. Some were making pottery. Others were grinding corn and making tortillas, which the children had learned are a kind of bread.

  Billy made a picture of a Mexican lady seated on a balcony. She was wearing a mantilla.

  When the children saw Billy's picture, they were sure that Billy's would be chosen for the blackboard.

  Ellen's was nice too. She drew a little Indian girl with a tray full of flowers.

  When all of the drawings were finished, Miss Ross hung them across the front of the room. The four best pictures were to be chosen for the blackboard. The children chose Billy's and Betsy's and Christopher's and Ellen's.

  Richard and Sally and Peter were chosen to put in flowers and trees. Some of the other children were to work on the wall of the house that formed the background. Others were to put in the mountains and sky.

  The children worked every day for weeks on the big picture. Betsy spent all of her spare time working on her Indian on the burro. Sometimes she even gave up her recess, because she worked more slowly than the other children.

  At last the picture was finished. The children were so proud of it they were ready to burst. All of the teachers in the school came in to see it. The children in the older classes came too. Everyone praised the big picture.

  "Can't we ask our fathers and mothers to come see it?" asked Billy.

  "I think that would be very nice," said Miss Ross.

  "When can they come?" asked Christopher.

  "Suppose we ask them to come next Friday," said Miss Ross.

  Betsy could hardly wait for Friday to come. She wanted Mother and Father to see the lovely picture and especially her Indian on the burro. It was only Tuesday now. Friday seemed a long way off.

  Betsy hurried home to tell Mother.

  The next morning the children rushed into school to look at their Mexican picture again. It was so wonderful to have it all finished. Betsy and Billy came through the door first. When their eyes fell upon the blackboard, they stopped still. The blackboard had been washed clean. There wasn't a trace of the beautiful picture.

  The rest of the children pushed past Betsy and Billy. They all stared at the blackboard. No one said a word.

  Just then Miss Ross appeared and they all began to talk at once. "Miss Ross, what happened to our picture?" they cried.

  "I couldn't believe my eyes when I came in this morning," said Miss Ross. "I have just spoken to Mr. Windrim, the janitor, about it. He tells me that he had a new helper yesterday. He told the helper to wash all of the blackboards. He didn't know about our picture."

  Betsy felt so bad she put her head down on her desk and cried. The rest of the third graders were as mad as hornets. Billy was furious. He kicked the table leg so hard he hurt his toe.

  "Now there is no use being angry," said Miss Ross. "And it won't help matters to kick the table leg, Billy."

  "But all of our good work is gone," said Ellen.

  "Well, we'll do it again," said Christopher. "We'll show 'em. We'll do it all over again. We still have our little pictures. We can copy them again."

  "That's the spirit,Christopher,"said Miss Ross. "How many boys and girls want to do it over again:

  All of the children but Betsy raised their hands. Betsy just cried harder.

  "Why, Betsy!" said Miss Ross. "You mustn't feel so bad. This time you will do it more quickly."

  "But I haven't my little picture of the Indian on the burro," sobbed Betsy. "Everyone else has their little picture, but Thumpy got hold of mine and tore it up."

  "Come here to me," said Miss Ross.

  Betsy went up to Miss Ross. Betsy's face was covered with tears. Miss Ross put her arm around Betsy. "Now, Betsy," she said, "how did you get the little picture of the Indian on the burro? Where did it come from?"

  "I thought of it," said Betsy.

  "Well, nothing has happened to your
thinker, has it?" said Miss Ross. "Thumpy hasn't torn up your thinker, has he?"

  This made the children laugh because they all knew that Thumpy couldn't tear up Betsy's thinker.

  Betsy wiped her eyes and her nose. "No," she said.

  "Well then, you're all right," said Miss Ross. "You can think it again."

  Betsy felt much better as she took her seat.

  That afternoon she made another picture of an Indian on a burro. She was surprised to find that she liked it much better than the first one.

  In another week the children had covered the blackboard again. Everyone thought that the new picture was much better than the first one.

  When the parents came to see the picture, Betsy's father brought enough ice cream for all of the children. He said he thought they all deserved a great big reward.

  "Boy, oh, boy!" said Billy, as he dug into a large plate of ice cream. "Am I glad the first picture was rubbed off!"

  7. Father's Funny Dream

  Thanksgiving was hardly over when the children in the third grade began talking about Christmas. The paper turkeys and pumpkins that they had pasted on the blackboard were taken down.

  The children were soon busy drawing what they called Christmas presents. They made them on large sheets of paper with colored crayons. With scissors they cut around the edges of the presents. When they were all finished, there were horns and drums, balls and tops and blocks. Some of the little girls had drawn dolls. A few of the boys had made fire engines and airplanes. Billy drew a great big fireplace on the blackboard. Then the children pasted the presents in front of the fireplace.

  Way up high on the blackboard Miss Ross drew the chimney. Then she pasted Santa Claus's sleigh and reindeer up in the sky. The children thought the blackboard very beautiful.

  At home Betsy was very busy making her real Christmas presents. She made Ellen a necklace of pink beads. For Billy she made a beanbag. It was made of red flannel, cut to look like an apple. Mother cut out a stem and leaves from a piece of green flannel. Betsy fastened them on the beanbag. She knew that Billy would know that it was supposed to be an apple as soon as he saw it.

  A week before Christmas there was a great big snowstorm. The children were delighted. They went sledding on the hill. They built forts and had snowball battles. Betsy and Billy made a snowman in Betsy's garden. They put a face on

  the back of the snowman's head, just like the one on the front.

  When Father asked Betsy why the snowman had a face on the back of his head, Betsy said, "Because we don't think it would be polite for the snowman to turn his back on Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. So now when Mr. and Mrs. Jackson look out of their windows, they will see the snowman's face too."

  That evening, before Betsy went to bed, she sat on Father's lap beside the open fire. "Father," said Betsy, "tell me about when you were a little boy." Betsy loved to hear Father tell about the things he did when he was a little boy.

  "Did I ever tell you about the biggest snowstorm I ever saw?" asked Father.

  "No, you didn't," said Betsy.

  "Well," said Father, "when I was just about as old as you are, I went to spend the Christmas holidays with my Uncle Dan and Aunt Mattie. They lived on a farm way up in the northern part of Michigan. All Christmas Day it was cloudy and Uncle Dan kept saying, 'There'll be snow 'fore the night's over. And plenty of it if I'm a good guesser.'

  "Before we went to bed, I helped Uncle Dan close the shutters. I could see snowflakes falling, very softly.

  "'Be covered up good, tomorrow,' said Uncle Dan. 'Probably get some good sleighing.'

  "I can remember," said Father, "just how I felt when Uncle Dan said the word sleighing. I tingled all over. I had never been for a sleigh ride. I had always visited the farm in the summer. But I had seen the big sleigh in the barn. Many a time I sat in the sleigh and thought how wonderful it would be to go for a sleigh ride. I had seen the sleigh bells too, hanging on the back of the barn door.

  "'Oh, Uncle Dan,' I cried, 'do you think I'll get to go for a sleigh ride?'

  "'Shouldn't be surprised,' said Uncle Dan.

  "That night," Father continued, "I had the funniest dream. I dreamed that I was having a sleigh ride. And who do you think was driving the sleigh?"

  "Who?" asked Betsy.

  "Why, Santa Claus," said Father.

  "Oh, Father!" cried Betsy. "And were there reindeer and did you ride through the sky and over the chimneys?"

  "No," said Father, "we rode in a sleigh just

  like Uncle Dan's. Uncle Dan's horses, Chippie and Rob, were pulling the sleigh. I sat up beside Santa Claus. Part of the time he let me drive. We drove a long way. The road led through the woods. At last we came to a house. It was all lit up. Santa Claus stopped the sleigh and we got out. He tied the horses to a post and put blankets over them. Then he took hold of my hand and led me up the steps of the house. It looked like an old inn. Inside, there was a roaring fire in the fireplace. Lying on the hearth were two dogs. When Santa Claus and I went into the room, I heard one dog say to the other, 'How do you feel, Fritzie?'

  "'Hot,' answered Fritzie.

  "'Me too,' said the first dog.

  "'Maybe we better beat it,' said Fritzie.

  "'Maybe we better,' said the first, ' 'fore we turn into hot dogs.'"

  "Oh, Father!" Betsy laughed. "The dogs didn't really talk, did they?"

  "Yes, they did, in my dream," replied Father.

  "So what happened then?" asked Betsy.

  "Well, Santa Claus began to laugh and the dogs began to laugh. They laughed and laughed and laughed and then I woke up," said Father.

  "And what did you do when you woke up?" asked Betsy.

  "I jumped out of bed and ran to the window," said Father. "When I looked out, it looked like fairyland. The ground was covered with a heavy blanket of snow. It hung thick on the trees. And it was still snowing hard."

  "Did it snow all day?" asked Betsy.

  "All day!" exclaimed Father. "It snowed all day and all night and all the next day. On the second night the wind came up and it howled around the corners of the house and blew the snow into great drifts. By the second day you couldn't see where the roads were and most of the fences were buried. The snow had drifted against the front of the house so that the front door was covered up. We couldn't open it, the snow was so heavy against it."

  "My goodness!" cried Betsy. "How did you get out?"

  "We could still use the back door," said Father. "It finally stopped snowing, late in the afternoon of the second day," he continued.

  "And then did you go for a sleigh ride?" asked Betsy.

  "Oh, my, no!" said Father. "It was a couple

  of days before we could shovel a path to the road. First of all we had to shovel our way to the barn so that Uncle Dan could feed the animals.

  "By New Year's Day the snow was packed down on the main roads, and every now and then we could hear the jingle of sleigh bells. Every time I heard them, I could feel a tingling right up and down my backbone.

  "On New Year's afternoon Uncle Dan said that he would hitch up the sleigh and we would drive over to see Aunt Harriet and Uncle Joe. I went out to the barn and watched Uncle Dan put the harness and the sleigh bells on the horses. When they were hitched to the sleigh, I could hardly wait to get in. There was straw in the bottom of the sleigh to keep our feet warm.

  "Uncle Dan took the sleigh around to the front of the house. Aunt Mattie came out with the rugs. She had a great many and I remember one of them was made of fur. Aunt Mattie tucked the fur rug all around me so that only my head showed. Then we started off. The horses trotted as though they liked pulling the sleigh. How the bells jingled! When we passed other sleighs, everyone shouted, 'Hello!'

  "Uncle Dan kept wondering whether we would be able to take the cross-country cut to Uncle Joe's. The road lay in the open country. Aunt Mattie said that he had better not try it because we didn't want to get stuck in a snowdrift.

  "'Now, Mattie,' said Uncle Dan, 'there's no
cause for you to worry. I can tell where the road is by the fence posts. They're just sticking above the snow.'

  "For about fifteen minutes our way lay along the edge of a wood. Then we came to a fork in the road. One road had been traveled. The other looked like icing on a cake.

  "'Here's where we turn,' said Uncle Dan.

  "'Now, Daniel,' said Aunt Mattie, 'you take my advice and take the traveled road.'

  "'Mattie,' said Uncle Dan, 'I know my way. It's perfectly safe.'

  "Then Uncle Dan turned the horses into the other road. But the road wasn't where Uncle Dan thought it was. Suddenly, before our very eyes, the horses disappeared from sight. They sank into a snowdrift that covered all but their backbones. The sleigh seemed to be sitting way up high.

  "Like a flash Uncle Dan leaped from the front seat onto the back of Rob. He quickly unfastened the harness, and in snow up to his shoulders he led the horses out of the drift. In a few minutes he had them back on the safe road. Aunt Mattie held one of the horses and I held the other. Then Uncle Dan pulled the sleigh around and harnessed the horses again."

  "What did Aunt Mattie say?" asked Betsy.

  "Aunt Mattie said, 'Daniel, maybe someday you'll learn to take my advice.'

  "And Uncle Dan said, 'Maybe so, Mattie. Maybe so. Well, it will make a fine story to tell Harriet and Joe when we get there.'

  "'Humph!' said Aunt Mattie."

  When Father finished, Betsy said, "Oh, Father! I should love to go for a sleigh ride!"

  "Well, perhaps you can go for a sleigh ride," Father answered. "Perhaps I can hire a sleigh and we can go for a sleigh ride in the big park."

  "Oh, that would be wonderful!" cried Betsy. "Do you think we can go soon?"

  "I'll see about it," replied Father. "And now you run along to bed."

  8. The Christmas Sleigh Ride

  A few days before Christmas Father said that he had a surprise for Betsy.

  Betsy shouted, "I bet I know! It's a sleigh ride!"